Multi-factor authentication or MFA is being adopted by businesses far and wide and is recommended in many best practises.
What is multi-factor authentication?
MFA is the principle that it is safety to add two steps to any logging in or access to systems. Adding one additional requirement means that anyone trying to access secure systems not only has to know the password but have the users mobile device. Each factor of this system compensates for the weaknesses of others in theory a weak password is made stronger from MFA.
Microsoft best practise
As SharePoint and cloud storage are becoming more popular due to this such as covid while also offering a more flexible and resilient service. Microsoft has been releasing information on best practice and a key part of best practise is MFA as this allows remote users to still have secure access.
Ease of authentication
The general implementation of this is quite easy anyone can handle their own MFA as long as they have a mobile device with a key being generated. Each user can be responsible for their account and authentication key.
Personal Use
MFA doesnt only have to apply to work place use it has personal use also. It is well known to be used in most account authentication in gaming. One people often look over is online shopping amazon often sends a code to you to verify it is you.
Summary
To summarise MFA is easy to implement with scalability baked into its design. It allows an extra layer of security to all access, as it is recommended as best practise by most tech firms it is worth considering for any business. Considering its use already in personal security that most users will have but never consider implementing it professionally improves security and adds a control.
Our write up on 27001 is available here.
